"If you’re in the game and you don’t want to see how far you can go then there’s no point being a pro footballer," he said in an interview for nufc.com this week.

"I didn’t know if I’d be good enough to establish at the top level but I wanted to find out. And that’s why I look back on my time with regret."

There had even been talk linking Brown with a £250,000-move to Sunderland and Liverpool were also rumoured to be interested before he moved to Newcastle.

But his hopes of establishing himself as a First Division player were short-lived as he suffered a devastating injury at Newcastle when he snapped an Achilles tendon.

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"It was a total accident. It was the second or third day of pre-season training, we were doing some springs – knees, chest and then you sprinted ten or 20 yards," he said.

"But as I landed I just felt something snap at the back of my ankle. When I saw the surgeon I described it as though someone had cracked a whip on the back of my ankle and apparently that’s the telltale sign.

"It was a horrendous injury. It took me two or three years to recover and robbed me of the chance to find out how far I could go. So Newcastle will always be a case of what-might have been for me.

"I remember when I left Town, Phil Neal was packing it in and my Town teammates Keith Hanvey and Steve Kindon said I’d play for England so it was a massive disappointment. Yes they were friends and so a bit biased, but I was ready to have a good crack at it."

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He was forced to miss the whole of the 1983-84 promotion campaign but despite his injury setback, Brown recovered enough to have a strong season on Tyneside, playing in 39 games out of 42, before returning to Leeds Road.

"We ended up successfully fighting for survival but I never really gave a true account of myself because of the injury – I had to learn new ways to do everything, including striking a football," he explained.

"I missed out on our Kevin Keegan-inspired promotion in 1984 but then had one season in the old First Division which got off to a flying start with three wins on the spin.

"Jack Charlton had come in and said you’re going to play in every pre-season game and I thought he was joking because I was still limping around the place.

"But I did and then played almost all the whole season, which I regard as a massive achievement.

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"Before I played I had to stand in a hot bath because my ankle was so stiff, that was the only way to get it moving and then after the game I’d go into the bar and I’d be limping like an old man.

"Still, though, in spite of everything, I feel like I've been very lucky to have been able to call myself a Newcastle player.

"It was hard watching from the sidelines as Kevin led the club to promotion in his last season as a player, but then I got to play with truly wonderful players in Peter Beardsley and Chris Waddle and little David McCreery who was a real terrier."

Brown will take part in a Q&A with fans at Huddersfield’s PPG Canalside training ground ahead of Saturday’s game before signing fans copies of Terriers' book The 101 Club which charts the Yorkshire side’s celebrated 1979-80 season.